slf-uk

Congratulations Alain. What are you plans for your new status? Iain

Very handy, looks great

Alan told me he had a special buyer in mind for those. Very unusual and collectable too I expect. I think you may just have earned yourself enough good will for a return trip by bringing those home. Iain

I hope it all goes well Alain

Looks like a great haul. You could try telling Mrs Showman that you have bought some new patio furniture Iain

I am pleased you have resolved the issue with the rear brakes. Good luck with the steering column that looks like a very big challenge. Iain

I got sidetracked last night and did not get the chance to take any further pictures. I did have a quick looks at my decks and it would appear that not all of them have a bar going between the two brackets on the lift side.

Alain, From the pictures I think you have a bar missing and the curved bracket the wrong way around. I have marked up this picture. The circle shows where the bar should go with the other end fixing into the the similar bracket at the other end of the deck. I notice from the pictures you have the bar on the other side of the deck. The curved bracket is upside down and I have tried to draw freehand the way it should go. The picture I posted last week shows the missing bar and the correct way for the curved bracket. I was hoping to drop a deck on a H16 over the weekend so I could verify my thinking and send you some pictures, but the trip on Saturday took up all my weekend free time. I will have a look tonight to see if I can find something to take some better pictures of. Iain

It does look like we did that in the last picture, however the strop is around the bed and the strop around the chuck is only for balance. The bed is too short to move the saddle out of the way and as the saddle is not as wide as the hole in the bed we centralised the saddle so that it was out of the way of the strop. On reflection a load leveler would have been better as we would not have needed to use the chuck to balance the load. When we strapped it to the trailer we did use a straps to the chuck, which we were not comfortable about but could not think of another way. Those straps turned out to not be very tight so it wasn't as much of a risk as it could have been. Iain

As Alan mentioned, Tom and I paid another visit to see Alan and John to collect Tom's lathe and a few other goodies. Much like previous trips we ended up bring back much more than we had intended to. Alan makes a great sales man. Chris kindly said he would bring along his 1886 and it made light work of moving the lathe on the trailer. So much so that we all had time for a rest and to take pictures of the magnificent 1886. These are the pictures I took After Chris had moved the trailer we all had a drive of the 1886. I managed to take a picture of Tom deep in thought, clearly contemplating selling those red tractors to put a Bolens into his life Fortunately no pictures of me It was a very long day and very late by the time we got home. Despite the late hour my wife was ready with very welcome refreshments before we started to unload. Today we moved Tom's lathe into position and my lad Joseph had a test drive with his new Saxon trailer It was great to see Alan, John, Chris and Philip, and many thanks to Alan, Chris and John for the help, and to Tom's dad for doing all the driving. Until next time.... Iain

Very interesting

Alain, I will try to flag the problem when you post the pictures. If not, rather than try to describe what curved bracket you need and which one you don't I will fit a deck on one of my H16's and take some pictures. It is interesting that Alain mention that H14's are popular in the states as I think it may be the opposite in this country. I have only see a very small number of H14's and the majority of the hydros are H16's Iain

Alain, I think you may have one of the brackets fitted the wrong way, I have a couple of PTO suggestions and I will pick up the comments from my UK colleagues at the end... I had to have a bit of a move around in the workshop last night so space was a little tight, however I did manage to get a picture of a deck. In addition to showing my size 9's, hopefully it highlights what I believe to be the correct way the curved bracket fits Apologies if you are already aware of this but the it is really important to have the top and bottom PTO belt guards fitted. In addition to the safety factor, when you switch the PTO off the belt guard keeps the belt in the same shape and stop the PTO turning. Without the guard (especially the bottom one) the belt tries to become round and still turns the PTO. Poorly explained but I know what I mean If you have the guards in place it is worth checking to see if they are bent as many owners think it is a good idea to bend the guards to change the belts rather than use the bolts provided. The only other thing I can think of is incorrect size belt or the belt is damaged on the inner face. As I am sure you know, the PTO belts are 42-1/2" long and I have found that they often get replaced with 42" ones. Also as the H16 has two PTO belts so it is possible only one is wrong or damaged. It is fair to say that a few H16's are now in Norfolk . I have four H16's in my collection and I love them. None of them look as good as Alain's. A while back the boss asked me just how many H16's do I need, and the response was at least four. Assuming any reasonable price ones still exist in the UK ,Chris and Andrew will need to move fast as five sounds better than four The price of H16's appear to be going through the roof which is probability due to it's capabilities. In my opinion the H16 is the best and most usable tubeframe tractor and the combination of hydro, diff lock and a 16hp motor is incredible. It would be interesting to hook a H16 up to Mark's bendy. Bendy should have the mechanical advantage but I am sure a H16 would give it a run for it's money. In the past I have hooked a H16 up to my Wheelhorse D200 and it made the D200 look very silly. Iain

That looks like a lot of fun! Ian, you have built a fantastic machine. I am looking forward to the video Iain

Real ale has my vote. We have some great breweries in East Anglia, with larger ones such as Adams and a lot of good smaller ones. Woodfords is my personal favorite with St Peter's a close second. In order to set the correct priorities and ensure it was compelling for people to attend, we had our wedding reception (many years ago) at the hall located on the St Peter's brewery site and arranged brewery tours for all our guests. Iain

George, that plough is even the right colour for your tractor. It would be a shame not to. Iain

Once you have sorted the Spitfire you are welcome to sort my TR6 I would be very interested in your progress with the Spitfire. Iain

Great progress Tom. Lots of smiles from the first drive I expect. The spindles were seized on mine and it took me a while to get them out. I had to use lots of heat. Iain

Looking for to the update from the first drive. Fantastic progress Iain

Very cool attachment . It is interesting that it can be towed via the hitch or three point. It is also much larger than I thought, with the pallet for scale. Iain

A couple of quick pictures of the tractors where they were parked up after the move to Norfolk. Slowly moving them elsewhere being towed by my 7 year old lad, the demon Gator driver Iain

A mate brought around a truck load of goodies for me on Friday, which includes some good wood, steel, and some metal cupboards and shelving. I am in so much trouble with the boss and I had to listen to my list of my crimes this morning. This included not cutting the grass last weekend, putting the Bolens stash in the garden and now filling the drive with what has been described as rubbish (or words to that effect). Apparently if I was single everywhere would be littered with this sort of stuff. She does make being single sounds very attractive I foreseen a weekend of grass cutting and moving things about. I am going to try to compress that into today so I can start to check out the stash tomorrow. Iain

I completely agree with Tom, is was an incredible weekend. It wasn't until Sunday night that I realised that I had not eaten since Thursday night I completely forgot with the excitement and fun of the weekend. Iain

I'm really pleased that you have not found any major issues, it looks great. Iain

Absolutely, that's because they are Bolens Two, maybe three have lots of potential. They are the two funky coloured ones (blue and yellow) and a white one with no hood. The others have potential but will need a fully and complete restoration and a couple are parts only. All have something seized. As I start to get them organised I will post some post some detailed pictures. The Bolens we brought back with all the Wheelhorse's, I put into my workshop as it was getting too late on Sunday to think of somewhere else to put it. My workshop now has a very unpleasant smell, not sure if that has anything to do with the rats nest we found under the tractor or if one of those Wheelhorse's peed on it in fright, thinking it was going to get a Glasgow handshake during the journey. The cast front on that tractor could do a lot of harm You have to admit that in the one before last picture that Bolens looks fantastic compared to all that red stuff Thanks for posting the pictures Alan. You did a great job of the pictures and masked the horrible weather we had on Friday and the rain on Sunday. Iain